The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has announced plans to significantly increase financial support for water security projects in Rajasthan, as reported by The Hindu BusinessLine. NABARD Chairman Shaji Krishnan V met with Rajasthan Chief Secretary V Srinivas on Saturday to discuss comprehensive rural development initiatives. The meeting focused on water security, climate resilience, digital agriculture, rural credit, agricultural markets and cooperatives, with both sides agreeing to jointly organise a Rural Development Conclave in October to prepare an action plan for a climate-resilient and water-secure rural Rajasthan.
Water security was identified as a key priority during the strategic discussions, according to the NABARD statement. The development bank will explore increasing support through the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) and other financing instruments for irrigation modernisation, water-use efficiency, groundwater recharge, watershed development and river-linking projects. Chairman Krishnan emphasized that the next phase of rural development should move beyond asset creation and focus on faster implementation, stronger rural enterprises, climate resilience and measurable livelihood outcomes.
The meeting discussed transforming Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) and other cooperatives from primarily credit-oriented institutions into rural enterprises, as reported by The Hindu BusinessLine. NABARD will support this transformation through concessional and development-oriented financing, capacity building and business development. PACS could diversify into input supply, procurement, warehousing, custom hiring, processing, value addition and rural retail operations. The transformation aims to strengthen cooperatives as viable business enterprises in the rural sector.
The discussion also covered using digitised land records, AgriStack and digital crop-survey data to simplify agricultural credit processes, according to the NABARD statement. Digitised land records can be utilised through the RBIH Unified Lending Interface and KRISHIKA app to reduce documentation and facilitate data-based lending, particularly for small and marginal farmers. This digital approach aims to streamline agricultural credit processes and improve accessibility for rural borrowers.
